ASHKELON, Israel – Israel’s deputy defense minister warned on Friday of a disaster in the Gaza Strip after Israel activated an air raid system to protect a major city from increasingly threatening Palestinian rocket barrages.As Israeli troops, tanks and aircraft went after Palestinian rocket operations, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radio that Israel had “no other choice” but to launch a massive military operation in Gaza.

“As the rocket fire grows, and the range increases … they are bringing upon themselves a greater ‘shoah’ because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate, whether in airstrikes or on the ground,” Vilnai told Army Radio.

BEIRUT – The pro-Iranian Hezbollah group accused the United States on Friday of endangering regional stability by deploying a warship off Lebanon and vowed to defy what it called an act of military intimidation.

The United States said on Thursday it sent the destroyer USS Cole to the eastern Mediterranean because the Bush administration was concerned about Lebanon’s political deadlock.

“The American move threatens the stability of Lebanon and the region and it is an attempt to spark tension,” Hezbollah member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters by telephone.

Stocks fell sharply Friday after a series of depressing economic and corporate reports and high oil prices stoked concerns about the health of the economy. The major stock indexes fell more than 2.5 percent and the Dow Jones industrials lost 315 points.

Investors were unnerved by disappointing quarterly results from American International Group Inc. and Dell Inc. And an index of regional business activity that Wall Street regards as a good indicator of a broader report set to arrive next week had its weakest showing in more than six years.

A recent victim, Andy at World Wide Rant, emailed me about his experience, and I have read about it elsewhere in the news. Andy is crusading to make sure everyone is aware of this threat. You can get more information here.

I learned this from our Malaysian waiter on our cruise last summer. Just try to do it like it looks. Put the spoon inside the tines, then run one toothpick through the tines and kind of flatten or tip the fork/spoon combo as shown. Then balance it on the toothpick tips.

I should have put one up at the IB Super Treats table, but I forgot. I was still too stunned from R.G.s incredible rubber band trick.

From the people who brought you the intertubes (no, not Al Gore), something new:

Photo credit: Carnegie Mellon, National Robotics Engineering Center.

The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA (which brought you a little thing called the Internet), has nearly finished work on the Crusher, a six-wheeled robot that rolls through ditches, walls, streams, other vehicles and almost anything else that gets in its way.”This vehicle can go into places where, if you were following in a Humvee, you’d come out with spinal injuries,” Stephen Welby, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, told the military-oriented Stars and Stripes newspaper. “Usually vehicles are set up to protect humans. Here, we didn’t have to worry about that.”

For three hundred years, combat has been gradually morphing into a less personal experience, while the technology continues to make it more destructive. Space-based energy weapons are the next frontier in combat.

Well, they are crazy, of course, but this may actually be a good idea.

BERLIN – Police dogs in the western city of Duesseldorf will no longer get their feet dirty when on patrol — the entire dog unit will soon be equipped with blue plastic fiber shoes, a police spokesman said Monday.”All 20 of our police dogs — German and Belgian shepherds — are currently being trained to walk in these shoes,” Andre Hartwich said. “I’m not sure they like it, but they’ll have to get used to it.”

Surely even Germans could have come up with something more stylish. Why are these dogs being forced to suffer this indignity?

The problem is drunks.

The unusual footwear is not a fashion statement, Hartwich said, but rather a necessity due to the high rate of paw injuries on duty. Especially in the city’s historical old town — famous for both its pubs and drunken revelers — the dogs often step into broken beer bottles.

The problem is exacerbated by cobblestone streets, which are difficult to clear of glass debris.

My hat is off to the Dusseldorf police for making an extra effort to protect their canine crimefighting friends.